Subbed: Honey & Clover – 09

Summary:
Hagu-chan is having trouble getting motivated and inspired to work on a piece for a art magazine. The more she thinks about doing what she usually does, the more pressure she adds on herself. Later, Yamada reminisces about Mayama and arrives at the kitchen to find him bearing food presents for the group. He even treats them to some noodles. In thanking him, everyone gives him a hug. Yamada wants to join in the love, but she can’t say “I love you” to Mayama in the same nonchalant way everyone else can. Later, as Hagu-chan and Takemoto are walking along, they spot Morita working on his sculpture. Hagu-chan is inspired by this and rushes off to work on her own piece. Takemoto ends up helping Mayama pick out a small piece of wood. The next day, Takemoto walks in on Hagu-chan admiring a wooden broach. Takemoto immediately realizes that Morita carved it out the night before. He rushes out before Hagu-chan sees him and wonders to himself if he should have told her who made it.
It’s Christmas time and Hagu-chan goes with Yamada to the family store to work. They sell cakes at a frenzied pace, but in the end business isn’t nearly as good as previous years. That night, they try to think of something to draw in more customers. Yamada’s father wakes up the next morning to find a giant balloon animal in front of the store. Hagu-chan apparently thought up the idea and then recruited Takemoto to help. As he leaves for his delivery job, Takemoto realizes that he doesn’t hate Christmas anymore because his loneliness is gone. The group ends up having a Christmas party and everyone comes. Takemoto is about to tell Hagu-chan who made the broach for her, but Morita stops him.

Yay! My two favorite shows in one day. A decent episode, so I really don’t have much to say about it aside from the normal stuff. This episode wasn’t quite as good as the past two, but the bar is raised pretty high at this point. It did strike me that time seems to pass rather quickly at times. It’s Christmas again after 5 episodes. But this isn’t really a complaint as just an observation. This passage of time allows us to see the characters mature and change, so it’s probably for the better.
Oh, I have a treat for everyone that likes Waltz…